Well, if so, it’s worth taking a moment to evaluate what’s
causing your dissatisfaction and maybe coming up with a few ideas on how you
might improve things on the job.

After all, you likely spend a significant portion of your
waking hours at work, so liking what you do is inherently preferable, but more
than this, job dissatisfaction can lead to energy-sapping burnout and studies
even show that people who are happier at work stay healthier than their less
satisfied co-workers.1

Often the best remedy for job dissatisfaction is simply changing
jobs, but when that’s not possible, practical or advised, sometimes you can
reshape the current job you loathe, into a future job you’ll love (or at least
like).

So with that in mind, here are 8 easy (and some not so easy)
changes to consider - find any one that works for you and you might find even
find yourself on a Sunday evening looking forward to getting into work for the
long week ahead.

8 Ways to Increase Job Satisfaction (To Reduce Stress and
Burnout)

1. Ask for a Written Description of Your Job’s
Responsibilities

You can’t do it all…

Taking on too much and/or feeling like you’re never able to
meet a job’s requirements take you on a fast track to stress and burnout, but
are you really responsible for all that you’ve got on your plate?

Talk to your manager/supervisor or someone in HR and ask for
a written description of your job’s responsibilities. With this in hand you can
focus your attention on what you need to be doing and push away what’s beyond
your sphere of responsibility.

2. Don’t Bring It Home with You

Studies show that people who can leave work at the office and
mentally detach from the workplace once at home for the night are more
satisfied and more productive workers over the long run.

Although you may think that obsessing about work after hours
increases your performance, research shows that people who don’t detach from
work at home become less engaged workers as time goes by.2

So leave work at work. It’ll lower your stress, increase
your job satisfaction and you’ll be a better worker for it.

3. Sign Up for Additional Training

Studies of workplace satisfaction consistently show that
workers who get more and better training are more satisfied on the job than
those with less training.3

Job training leads to greater work competency and new ideas
and approaches which can reduce boredom – and beyond all that, it just feels
better to be really good at your job than to just get by each day.

Is there any skill-set at work you need to improve on? Does
your workplace offer training courses or are such courses available at local
colleges or universities?

4. Take a Vacation

Skip a vacation or two this year and you greatly increase
your risk of job burnout4 and studies show that people who take more vacation
time report higher levels of job satisfaction.5

You can only take the days you have but there’s no excuse
for failing to use all that you’re given. Take a step back from work whenever
you can and you’ll come back a better and more satisfied worker.

5. Add a Potted Plant and a Window View

Seriously.

This one’s an easy one, but according to researchers, adding
a few plants and some sunshine to your working environment pays off with a
surprisingly high job satisfaction dividend.

In a study of office workers in Texas and the Midwest,
researchers found that 82% of workers who had plants and windows in their work
environment reported feeling very happy at work, 69% of workers with plants but
no windows reported feeling very happy at work and 60% of workers with no
plants but windows reported feeling very happy. Among workers with no windows
or plants in their work environment, only 58% reported feeling very happy at
work.6

6. Be Yourself at Work

Be yourself – making an effort to hide your true nature or
authentic self results in lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of
perceived discrimination.7

Being authentic at work may increase job satisfaction as it
is associated with better work relationships and friendships.

7. Add Variety to Your Job

Tedium, unsurprisingly, leads quickly to job
dissatisfaction.

If you’re stuck in a rut at work consider ways to add
variety to your daily work routine.

Consider:

Volunteering to sit on a committee

Mentoring a junior colleague or asking a talented
co-worker/superior to mentor you in some area

Transferring to a different division within the company

Volunteering for new responsibilities

Getting involved with social activities at work (company
softball team etc.)

8. Add Exercise to Your Work Day

Shake up your lunch-time routine with an invigorating walk
or run – or try commuting by bike instead of driving in by car.

Although there’s a lot you can’t control about your work
environment, you can control your attitude - and the way you approach each day
goes a long way toward influencing how much you enjoy your on-the-clock time.

Incorporate a little aerobic exercise into most days and
you’ll find that the stress relieving and mood buoying effects of getting
moving will do a lot to improve the attitude you bring to the job – and that’ll
do a lot to improve your overall work satisfaction level.

Helpful Reading:

Guidelines for getting back to work once safely in recovery. How much to reveal, how to deal with questions, how to return to your old job, or if you can't or don't want to - how to get a new one even with a large gap in your resume.

For first responders at risk of PTSD and burnout, learn more about: daily habits that protect you, red-flags that warn of an impending problem and adaptive response techniques that safeguard your professional standing.